Biopsycholgy Flashcards
(20 cards)
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Sensory
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Relay
Taylor et al. Tend or befriend
Female fight/flight response is protecting young
More oxytocin - more careing
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Motor neuron
Lee and Harley fight or flight
Genetic basis for fight or flight/tend and befriend
Males have SRY gene on Y chromosome
Promotes aggression - leads to fight or flight
Chronic Stressors
Active when something is an ongoing threat
HPA axis:
H - hypothalamus
Releases CRH into bloodstream
P - pituitary gland
CRH makes it release ACTH into bloodstream
A - adrenal glands
ACTH makes it release stress related hormones
This system regulates itself to keep the body in the desired state
Explain brain plasticity
Brain’s ability to adapt
Neural pathways created and changed
Functional recovery: move brain functions from damaged areas to undamaged areas
Neural unmasking: dormant synapses unlock (Wall)
Kuhn brain plasticity
Participants play video games for 30mins a day for 2 months
More grey matter in cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum than control group
Game had led to new connections being made in areas of brain needed to play games
Davidson et al. Brain plasticity
8 Tibetan monks and 10 volunteers meditate with electrical sensors fitted.
Monks showed more gamma waves
Meditation can change how your brain works
Circadian rhythms
Behaviour pattern every 24hours
All cells have body clocks - set by suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is set by exogenous zietgebers, external stimuli e.g. light levels
Pineal gland excretes melatonin at night, signalled by suprachiasmatic nucleus based on light
Brain scans
EEG shows electrical activity as a wave over time
ERP registers voltage changes in response to stimuli
FMRI shows blood flow in brain, indicating which parts are being used more
Siffre circadian rhythms
Went caving with no way to tell time
Removes all exogenous zietgebers
7 months
His body was being tested, results sent to surface team
Found body’s day was 25 hours
He came up very early thinking it had been 7 months
Broca
Discovered patient who understood language but couldn’t speak
Found 8 patients like this
All had damage to same brain area - Broca’s area
Supported by aphasia studies - found same results, Broca’s aphasia
Klein and Wegmann exogenous zietgebers
Circadian rhythms of jet lagged people adjust quicker if they go outside at their destination
Social cues act as zietgebers
Limitations of brain scans
EEG can’t measure activity from deep parts of brain
ERP restricted to neocortex
Lateralization and localisation
Left: dominant for language and speech
Right: dominant for visual-motor
Motor cortex: both hemispheres, in frontal lobe, voluntary movement
Somatosensory cortex: both hemispheres, in parietal lobe, detects sensory info
Visual cortex: both hemispheres, right processes left eye, and vice versa
Temporal lobes: in both hemispheres, in the auditory cortex, processes sounds
Tajiti et Al functional recovery
Rats with brain damage given stem cell transplant or identical transplant but without stem cells
3 months later stem cell rats had new neural pathways, and stem cells being moved to damaged area
Hughes circadian rhythms
Tested hormone release of Antarctic researchers
At end of Antarctic summer cortisol levels were highest at waking, after 3months of no sun cortisol was highest at noon, not at waking
Somatic nervous system
12 pairs of cranial nerves in underside of brain
31 pairs of spinal nerves in spinal cord
Reflex actions without involving CNS
Moves sensory information to and from CNS
Morgan - endogenous pacemakers
Bred hamsters to have circadian rhythms of 20 hours
Transplanted SCN neurons into normal hamsters, found they then had circadian rhythms of 20 hours
Transplanted SCN neurons from normal hamsters into them, their circadian rhythm went back to 24 hours
